Thursday, July 24, 2014

Sagewood Preprimary School embarked on a project to bring awareness to the Noordwyk community when they built a Rhino float to use on the School Fun Walk. And this was further extended during the theme on mammals. Our children were made aware and taught the importance of conserving our wildlife and in particular, our endangered species i.e. Rhino.

Our children gave a donation of R1500 towards Rhino conservation and as a reminder of the pledge to save our Rhino they did the hand prints on a cloth mural. Kirsty Brebner, the Rhino Project Manager from the Endangered Wildlife Trust did a presentation to our children on Rhino conservation and received the donation.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Chantal Smith a PADI qualified Dive Master, spoke to the Pre-primary
children about scuba diving. She had a full set of scuba diving equipment with
her and showed the children all the important components and explained how they
were used and why they were needed when scuba diving. She then showed the
children some videos of scuba diving in different areas of the ocean around
South Africa. The children loved learning about and being able to see the
different parts needed for scuba diving and being able to see what it would be
like to be under the water with the fish and sharks around South Africa.

Written by Michelle Hackmann (Pink Class Teacher)

During our science circle time we felt a piece of cotton wool and said
how it felt. We then saw what happened to the cotton wool when water was added
to it. We then discovered how the cloud fills up with water and the water then
makes the cloud heavy and the water turns into rain and falls to the ground.
Creating a cloud jar was a great way to extend our morning discussion on clouds
and how rain is formed.

The process

We covered the entire floor with two layers of paper towels. Then each
child was divided into groups of two and was given a jar filled 2/3′s with
water. In addition, each child shared four cups of colored water (we added food
color) with a partner. Every child was also given a dropper to work with. Once
we had all the water and colored water in place, I added a “cloud” (shaving
cream) on top of the water in each child’s jar. I then demonstrated how to add
drops of color on top of the shaving cream then to watch carefully as the color
made its way through the “cloud” and then dropped into our clear water down
below. Now it was time to let the children explore the process on their own.
They were so focused and interested in coloring their clouds and as the colored
water started to flow below the cloud, the children saw the colored rain drops
in the clear water. They were amazed and discussed it in great detail.